Many players this weekend stopped and watch my match, with such comments and questions such as;

“This deck look sweet.”

“Can I see the deck?”

“Is it consistent, the mana seems like it would be hard?”

Well, to those who liked the deck and thought it was sweet. Thanks! Those who wanted to see the deck, I obliged. Those who questioned the consistency of the mana, found the answer as they watched.

The deck in question, is the 75 that I decided to run in the SCG Richmond invitational, as well as the SCG Richmond open. The deck I dubbed, “The Pile”, a creature based combo deck that aims to utilize all of the delve capabilities afforded to Soulflayer. The reason for dubbing this deck the pile, was due to how it looks on paper.

As you view it, it looks like a random assortment of enablers, creatures spells, and an access to all 5 colors of mana. However, all of the cards have a specific role, and the overlap and redundancy of them, create a very consistent way of obtaining several avenues to victory.

The Enablers

The enablers in the deck are the spells that function in putting the creatures in the graveyard that have hex proof flying etc. The enablers are as follow, Satyr Wayfinder (which doubles as a way of fixing mana.), Commune with the Gods (which doubles as a way of finding a threat.), Scout the borders( which facilitates both rolls of commune and the Satyr Wayfinder as needed.), Sidisi, Blood Tyrant (which not only puts creatures in the graveyard for Soulflayer, but also generates threats), and Sultai Charm (which doubles as a removal spell.)

The match ups this deck thrives against are creature based aggro decks and other fair decks such as Abzan and Sultai control. These decks have issues removing a hexproof creature off of the field and as well as against gaining life while thwarting their attacks, is well “BIG GAME!”

The problematic decks are decks that can go bigger than us. I like to call these match ups the coin flip match ups. The devotion decks, when they are able to generate extreme amounts of mana through Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx has proven to be an issue since they have the ability to go even bigger than we do.

The OH NO! as I put it is Blue Black control. The fact that this deck runs multiple counters and are able to counter our earliest full assemble turn which can be as quick as 3, is an extreme issue. This is why the sideboard has so many reactive elements. The ability to access information, through duress, hold up counter magic, and attack on another axis such as Kiora, The Crashing Wave is our way of evening out this match-up.

Thanks for reading, please feel free to leave questions and comments. I will be posting videos coming soon of many brews as well as this one. You can catch me on twitch.tv/jastar13.